Keep Moving Forward

I was thinking the other day about… those points in your life that you miss but then when you think about it you’re like “No actually that sucked, why do I miss that, I have forged myself into such a better harder faster stronger person since then.” and on that note got to thinking about how strange it must be to be the sort of person who just kind of hunkers down and believes they know everything they’ll ever know and they’ve lived the best days of their lives and there’s just nothing in their future that can top what they’ve already experienced. That must be so scary? Just resigning yourself to believing that it already got as good as it ever will and everything is downhill.

I mean, I understand I’m a fairly young person and I’m sure I’ll miss aspects of the “good old days” when I get old and my body starts falling apart on me but I mean in the grand scheme of things the wisdom and respect that comes with life experience is certainly going to open worthwhile doors.

And also I found out that apparently the writers on Power Rangers started calling Lord Zedd “Al Budy Zedd” after they married him off to Rita Repulsa and thought it was pretty great.

Zedd always gave me the creeps… How did they even allow something like him to appear on TV? A skinless abomination with his meat and brain sticking out… Especially in something with such hilariously overdone violence like Power Rangers…

Sorry for rant. But anyway Commander sure has a point, just try to live your life the best way you can and you won’t have any regrets about your past.

Zedd would stick out in Sentai. It didn’t seem so odd back then (my reaction was “oh hey, the stateside version has a new gimmick instead of freakin’ five stars shining in the heavens”) but now… yeah, how _did_ they get Zedd on the air?

And while I agree with what Commander says here about 95% of the way… there’s always some stuff you can only do while you’re still young. The man’s got a picture with his siblings doing a Cool Walk with an explosion in the background – he got his crazy sh** done, and now he’s reaping the rewards of maturity.

I loved Zed when I was little. Rita Repulsa was so melodramatic and silly at times and then? Suddenly a villain who’s intimidating, powerful and actually does something else than being goofy. And that awesome design! I was really mad when Rita manipulated him into marrying her and he got toned down… For me pre-marriage Zed will will always be the best Power Rangers villain ever ;]

The original 1984 run of the My Little Pony ‘N Friends tv show beats Lord Zed by several miles in scary. The villains looked like they came off a Metal album cover. Arabus’, the cloud demon, entire existence was devoted to devouring pony souls — oh, excuse me shadows (lol, kidding it was souls). There was also Tirek, Ruler of the Midnight Castle, a demon Centaur who rules Tartarus (Hell) along with his army of monsters.

Lets not forget to mention Tirek reappeared in the new MLP generation. Where he was no less horrifying. Sucking out the essence of pony’s, nay, ALL the ponies and turning himself into a giant colossus punching out mountains.

The same way they manage to get Cardcaptor Sakura, Invader Zim, No Ordinary Family, and the Pokemon anime shown to children, but rate Attack on Titan TV-MA. The censors are still mostly looking at the wrong stuff, they’ve just switched focus over the years.

Hmm. I used to pine for the good ol days for the Air Force, conveniently forgetting those were some tough ass days that took alot out of you physically and mentally. :D I’m forging a new path now as business owner, so my pining has dropped substantially.

Have you seen their son? Ugh such a missed opportunity, just like that time Zedd handed Tommy’s butt to him.

Honestly I thought those two were the best fictional couple. She manipulated him for a reason that was later forgotten, it turns out he really did love her and in the end she must have felt the same, they fought, bickered and gave one another insulting pet names as opposed to always being all lovey like most couples, they were like a twisted Morticia and Gomez Addams. And in the end when all of that evil was wiped out of them the two are still into each other. In the end they had the most committed relationship, how messed up is that?

When I first saw that video I actually liked it quite a bit but after a while the over-the-top-violence really cheapened the whole thing. It was well produced and well acted but I hate how everyone and everything had to be “darker and edgier”. I would say the cheesiest scene was the North Korea fight and the part that bugged me the most was when the black dude did cocaine.

If the movie was as needlessly violent and as without morals as that “pilot” I would not like it and my sister would certainly never enjoy the movie.

I do think they did a good job at making thing in generals have a practical and realistic purpose. I always respect that in a production.

No, remember that one time when Commander took Jones with him to the non-descript space future? One of his siblings told Commander that he had basically become Hank Hill, and Commander got all offended at being compared to that “propane slinger”.

Being at the age when I am actually thinking about retirement and not flinching, nah. I can remember the crazy stuff I did when I was younger and laugh. I’m so much saner and wiser that it’s actually worth it. While I wouldn’t mind being reset in age to say, 25, I don’t want to have a 25 year old brain. I want this one, with all the experiences and memories.

Or, as I tell my minions (assistants) at work, hey, I worked HARD to be an evil overlord. I EARNED the cackle and monologuing. :D

Not so much. I was zombified from medication back in highschool and got along with people better back then. Now my life consists of quietly watching everything I cared about disappear and slowly decay, until not even the meaning of it remains. As such, I spend a lot of time being bored and depressing.

The past was as pointless as anything now, but it was brighter and I was less awful. It does look better to me, and there are things I know now that I wish I didn’t know then.

Being a few years older than you, I can speak from experience that it’s very helpful to always have something to look forward to. And to always be working on something that has meaning to you, whether it’s a novel or building London Bridge out of matchsticks.

At least I would have told my teenage self, assuming I listened instead of screaming “I’m gonna look like that!

It’s honestly very comforting to stop. Stop trying, stop learning, stop doing new things, stop believing in the future. It gives you a feeling of being in control. It lets you pretend the unknown doesn’t exist, so you don’t have to work to overcome your fear of it. When you really start believing that change is impossible, resisting change becomes a virtuous action.

I’ve been studying the conservative mindset lately. It may be ugly, but you can see the appeal. Imagine everything being so easy, you never have to do any mental or emotional work.

Probably discipline is the most important skill you can learn to avoid falling into that mindset. My impression of you, Coela, is of someone who’s more afraid of not getting to work than hopeful of not having to work, so you probably have nothing to worry about. Us slackers may have much to learn from you. :)

Try studying the actual mindset, instead of the one portrayed on the msm. Want to hear criticism of the republicans and shouts of “defund the GOP!”? Listen to talk radio. They’ve been more critical of republicans (not conservatives) than even the mainstream media.

I have met conservatives like that, yes. Conversely, in my conversations with liberals, I find it’s much the same thing, only at the other extreme. Believing in everything, thinking that the next change is the one that will bring happiness, without studying history, acknowledging the possibility of unintended consequences, or that good intentions are not enough to change the individuals that make up society, is just as easy, mindless, and self-reinforcing as the opposite. Change is hard and slow and often doesn’t work because people are people, and something unexpected always comes up. Conservatives deal with it by not wanting to change. Liberals deal with it by ignoring the difficulties and pretending all will be flowers and sunshine.

yep only by accepting that things are constantly in flux will true happiness be found. I used to miss being a kid but I look back at how ignorent I was and can’t stand staying in such a state of ignorence as knowledge brings true joy for me

I’m genuinely happy that you’re at a point in life where you can feel this way. It’s not just a case of poor perspective on other people’s part, however. Issues of disability, class, family crisis, employment/finances, citizenship.. There are dozens of things that can casually wipe away the future a person was working towards, the skills, abilities and people they hold dear, and leave them in a position where their resources from that point on are by necessity focused on survival & upkeep in unpleasant circumstances.

I guess I’m trying to say that it’s not simply a case of others giving up on life & thinking they know everything when they could be out learning new things and sniffing new roses.

Cool facts, both my mom and brother have MS, my mom hasn’t been able to walk since I was three. Disability can add new challenges to a person’s life, but it’s a fairly defeatist, ableist attitude to believe that disability prevents someone from being able to improve who they are as a person, live for new experiences, and become a cornerstone of the community. Yes, of course you can cherry pick obvious individual things to miss about a time before a really difficult life shake up and yes some people are just going to get hard break after hard break, there’s no “just believe and you can have anything you want” situation, but if you’re living your life with the pointed intent to focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t, you will always be making the best possible situation out of whatever your specific circumstances are and that’s something to at least wake up for in the morning. It’s not a guaranteed one-shot secret to success, but it’s a horizon to set one’s sights on and the wisdom that comes with experience to hopefully make more personally beneficial decisions in place of things that didn’t work in the past.

That said in the context of this strip they are pretty clearly specifically talking about being the jaded wash-out who peaked in high school and puts more effort into reminiscing about their glory days than trying to make the best of what they currently have.

Plenty of disabilities can, though. I appreciate your cool facts and the impact they’ve had on you (I have some too. Myself among them, so maybe take a firm step there), but calling me ableist for saying something that I didn’t (unable to improve as a person) is.. Not something I see any point in.

I’m.. Going to stop here, because I don’t see any fruitful results in either of us continuing this. I interpreted your commentary as more generally speaking than just highschool wash-outs, as apparently did many others. I disagreed with it for reasons stated above. If it wasn’t meant as such, then I retract that.

I’m a fairly young person and I’m sure I’ll miss aspects of the “good old days” when I get old and my body starts falling apart on me but I mean in the grand scheme of things the wisdom and respect that comes with life experience is certainly going to open worthwhile doors.

Well… sometimes things change to the point that your life experience doesn’t matter as much. When you’re in SoCal, for example, you may run into people who got a dirt-cheap university education in the state colleges because it used to be more publicly subsidized. In that particular respect, things used to be better, for a lot of people. Same thing with a lot of professions and trades.

Ah, I’ve got a family member like that. It can be draining to be around him because he believes so strongly that, the older you get, the harder it gets, and then you die. And you can’t really be optimistic in the face of such an unrelenting litany of ominous predictions. “Just wait ’til you get older. You don’t know how easy you have it right now. It never gets easier; it only gets worse from here.” But you can’t believe that, because then why keep on going? What’s the reward for toiling and toiling until your back finally breaks under the weight of your obligations, with nobody to help you and no hope of relief? You’re right – it’s a scary mindset to have, so scary, because it’s so hopeless. A mindset like that can’t ever predict a happy outcome, and sometimes can’t recognize the positivity of a given moment because it’s so clouded by some kind of dour sense of inevitability.

I truly, truly appreciate the Commander and these gems he shares because we live among the very loudly unhappy, and those people make it easy to forget how good things can be, if you let them. They teach you to accept sadness and complacency. But your guy punches back, and so matter-of-factly! You don’t have to be mired in the bad, and as much as being the best you can be is its own reward, it can sometimes even lead to things that are better! Only good can come of picking yourself up and putting one foot in front of the other. Even if it’s slow and measured you can get to a better place. Yeah!!

Damn, I was just remembering Lord Zedd the other day and always loved how badass he was and was sad that parents asked to making him more of a bumbling ill tempered villain. His dragon zord was bosssss

Zedd’s being too hard on himself. Sure, he fell on hard times near the end of the Saban era, but there’s always the opportunity to make a comeback. Get on the convention track. Star in some B-movies. Give voice-acting a whirl. The possibilities are really endless.

It happens and it can be okay to miss the old days but, in the end, you have to move forward and find new things to appreciate.

I did heavily competitive martial arts for 20 years. Around 2006, I started becoming aware that my time with that level of competition was coming to an end but it wasn’t until a knee injury in 2010 where the situation was summarized as “You can either keep doing martial arts for now or you can keep walking but you can’t do both” that finally got me to leave.

And, yeah, sometimes I miss those days and, sometimes, I do feel like everything is on a downhill slide. If I were honest, there are aspects that have slid downhill but not everything is worse. Some things are better than they were. Some things have the potential to get even better than they are now. It’s just a matter of appreciating what you have even when you think about the past and, if things aren’t going as well as you’d like, be open to making them better.

To quote Billy Joel: “The good old days weren’t always so good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.”

It probably depends a lot on your mindset, but from what I understand, a lot of people genuinely feel that they peaked in their youth, probably because then they didnt have any responsibilities and could just focus on football or whatever

The way to make your life better is to find all the things you are doing wrong and try to improve them. You have to realise that most of the stuff you think is right is probably (at least a little bit) wrong. You have to think about stuff critically not just keep doing the same dumb stuff.

Not entirely true… he did take Tommy out of the picture by getting rid of his Green Ranger powers, though that was only temporary insofar as who would expect Zordon to just whip up a new set of powers for him?

We’re all too different for any one life philosophy to work for all of us. Some people seem to genuinely enjoy pining for the past and if it doesn’t sound like they’re happy to you, it probably just means that your life philosophy is different from theirs. Granted, this isn’t true in every case… but people who really want to change their lives or themselves, usually do. The rest are content to be whatever they are because it is what they want to be (no matter how much they may try to convince you or themself otherwise).

Also, getting older is awesome! I enjoy looking back on the past and thinking “you’re an idiot!” of my younger self. I also like doing that to my current self. And future self, cause I know damn well I enjoy being an idiot too much to stop being one!

There are times I look back on and sigh nostalgically, not because they were my ‘glory days’, but because involved situations and opportunities and people that are no longer with me. I love my life now, but I loved it then, too, and sometimes I miss parts of the past.

Sometimes I think I miss the time when I was 15 and had tons of friends, then I remember I was actually suicidal then, couldn’t sleep and was skipping school every opportunity I got. Not to mention I got picked on.

Sure, the memories are great, and I had a lot of fantastic times then. But my life is pretty steady now and yet, I’m happier than I was back then. Which gives me something to think about.

kind of an unfair comparison, If Al’s wife wasn’t a complete narcissistic mooch who literally spends all of his money, Al Bundy would probably have the motivation to actually try harder to find a better job and get promoted. He might have even been happy.

say what you want, but Lord Zed always followed his ambition…….and it should be noted i think he’s one of, if not THE only villain who didn’t;
A. Get Destroyed
B. Get Converted to good.

I always wondered as a kid how the Bundys paid their power and phone bills, etc. if Peggy spent ALL Al’s pay on useless stuff. So I guess she took care of the bills first so she’d be comfortable at home, then wasted the rest?

As a bit of an old fart whose body is falling apart? (Well, more my brain, even, because I’m mentally disabled and I can feel myself slipping all the time.)

Well, it’s all about perspective. I think we spend a lot of our lives with a grand capacity to delude ourselves in relation to all things. And then, you reach a point where you don’t just pierce the veil so much as tear it asunder. Once you’ve passed that point of your life and become accustomed to it, there can be no more trickery. You can’t trick yourself, be tricked, or trick others. There’s a raw truth to it.

I think it’s what we think of as the kind of wisdom that comes with age. You begin to understand that each life is incremental, a tiny evolution rather than a truly revolutionary leap. In the span of my life, I can’t say much has changed. I’ve watched computers grow in complexity and power, only to collapse into consumer products and become bizarrely less powerful yet more popular. I’ve watched television become increasingly progressive over the decades until around some point in the early ’00s it just gave up and jumped off a cliff.

It’s something that you have to be at ease with if you don’t want to go completely bonkers in your old age. I am. I think a lot of it is due to our attachment to the familiar and our xenophobic nature, we’re clingy to what we know. At least, most of us are. I read a saying once, which I’m now going to bastardise for your enjoyment: Anything that exists when you were born is part of the natural order, anything created in your youth is exotic and exciting, anything created in your adulthood is just something new to learn, and anything created in your twilight years is an abomination to be destroyed at all cost.

I don’t feel that way, but observably the vast, vast majority does. I can think of so many things that were stricken away because they were too unfamiliar, too weird, too odd, and we weren’t ready for it. As much as tiny parts of humanity push for progression, the vast majority chugs backwards in a regressive pull. Our own animal nature is counter-productive to our efforts. So if you manage to convince a group of people that something strange and new isn’t an evil to be expunged, they push back the other way and hate it more. It’s a tug-of-war.

It’s trying to bring humanity into a future we can’t even perceive, yet. It’s a small amount of open-minded, transhumanist thinkers heaving, panting, and trying to pull the bulk of humanity along with them. Whilst humanity screams and flails behind. They don’t want to learn computers, VHS tapes and digital watches were enough. And before that, tuning a TV was a nightmare to them. It was expressed quite neatly in the surprisingly intellectual Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

And because of this tug-of-war, anything you do to help progression is ultimately MOSTLY futile. I say MOSTLY in upper-case because it is that, it’s not entirely futile. It just means that you’re fighting the primal, tribal, animal parts of humanity.

And so things move forward in tiny increments.

You have to try and get people used to these changes, but often it just ricochets. As a disabled person, I’ve spent most of my life trying to get people to see that we’re the invisible abused minority. Everyone healthy person hates us, especially if we have some mental disability. Really, if you don’t want to lose some of your faith in humanity then don’t web search ‘I hate mentally disabled people.’ Most do.

In the UK right now, disabled people are blamed for everything. They can’t blame the blacks any more, so they blame us. They ignore the tax dodging banks, and the tax evading rich people with mansions and more cars than I’m sure I could count. We’re not healthy, we’re different, so we’re a target. I’ve theories about this that it’s actually down to oxytocin, extreme extroversion, and the mirror neuron system within the brain that makes us hate the unfamiliar, that pushes us to play favorites with our own kind or our own experiences over anything new.

It makes us traditionalist and not particularly bright. Throughout humanity’s history there has been this struggle. Whilst the xenophobic, regressive masses have been doing their warrin’, and their hatin’, the rest of us have been doing what we can to make our species better. And it’s hard. I can say with some pride that I think that I’ve reached some people in my time and made my species a LITTLE better. A very, very tiny bit. I won’t over-exaggerate it. Like I said, I’m past the point of delusions.

It’s only a very tiny bit, you see? It’s MOSTLY insignificant. Just as I’m MOSTLY insignificant.

The strange part? I’m not sure if I remember glory years, so to speak, but cycles. Those moments when you felt that you were actually reaching people before it all fell through. So you’d try again, and you’d feel like you were reaching people annnnd… no. No. No luck. No such luck. The wheel turns, I suppose. Sometimes you’re high up, and sometimes it grinds you into the mud. There were good years, and there were bad years. And there were very bad years.

All in all, I’ve come out if it with a very profound sense of self. I’ve also got a remarkable understanding of moral philosophy. I’m proud of my own sense of ethics and Cosmopolitanism. I think that all the suffering I’ve endured has actually made me a good person. So, as strange as it is, even though my body is falling apart, my brain is farting itself, and who knows how long I might have left? I still feel as though what I’ve learned is invaluable. If anything, I long for telepathy, so I could impart this to everyone. I wish everyone could know.

If I could make everyone understand what I’ve endured, and the profound sort of empathy I’ve gained by having endured it, then I’d feel accomplished. But I can’t, I’ll die and I’ll be remembered by a handful. I’ll be a statistic. I don’t think that’s a bad thing because I’ve lived a very long time and I’ve made a big effort. So if I even make a TINY difference, just TINY, it has to be enough. No grandeur, here.

But hey, if I still live for a short while yet, I’m okay with that. I have someone who’s dear to me and has kept my sanity in check. I wouldn’t mind spending some more time with them. I see it as payment for all services offered over the course. Some comfort to counter all the times I’ve been put through the wringer.

I think the latter years are the years where you relax and realise that it’s not your job to be dragging the humans along behind you any more.

That’s for someone younger and more spritely. Let them pick up the rope.

So I’ve endured a lot throughout my life and thanks to my ethics I’ve become a LITTLE better than the majority of people in my philosophical understanding. And in passing some of that on, I’ll have had a TINY, and MOSTLY insignificant impact. As one human on a world of 7 billion, I think that’s okay.

Though if there are ever 7 billion humans that could set aside their xenophobia, their traditionalism, and their fears to embrace entirely new possibilities and the true potential of our species? Man, I’d love to be around long enough to see that. I won’t be, but I’m happy that the potential MIGHT be there. Just a LITTLE bit. And that I, in some TINY way, may have added to that potential in some way.

I’m okay with that. I can live with that.

I’d like to think that if these increments continue, eventually we won’t encounter an alien species who’ll wipe us out because our xenophobia makes us so much of a threat to every other developing species out there. That’d be nice, wouldn’t it? That’s all thinkers like myself have ever wanted is for humanity to look at itself and see that it’s okay, and just okay. Not divine, not perfect, not the greatest form of life ever, not the worst either, very flawed, mostly blithering idiots with rare moments of genius, and just okay. Just okay. With no narcissism, no egotism, and no delusions. To see themselves how I see ’em.

As it is, I’m tired. Too tired to find out. But hey, I’m hoping for the best and I’m sure my species will make me proud. Eventually. One day. Even if it’s over a hundred million years from now.

Meanwhile, I’ll stop asking myself the big questions and instead focus on the fun ones. Like what it would be like to be a werewolf detective. Sure, you’d lose out on certain ocular capacities and you’d be colourblind, but at the same time the world would tell you a history in smell. That, and you’d be able to smell a person’s brain to find out more about them. It’d be a kind of weird pseudo-telepathy that might add to empathy. They’d be likely to know whom they’ve hurt and just how others are feeling, which is very different.

Or perhaps what it would be like to be a spaceship. To feel the resolution of the void, and to see through a million camera eyes. To dip a fin into the ring of Saturn and experience just what that’s like.

First off, those are some very interesting perspectives. I’ll try to keep those in mind.
Second, I find your description of humans remarkably reminiscent of one Douglas Adams… The description of Earth, and everything on it, from the space equivalent of Wikipedia? Mostly Harmless. Mostly.
Third, on your werewolf idea, have you ever heard of “The Wheel of Time” series by Robert Jordan? It’s insanely long, at least a 2-year effort for all but the most dedicated, but one of the characters has a very similar set of abilities, and it makes for some interesting reading (in my opinion anyway.)
Last, directed at Coelasquid: Keep up the good work. Commander is an inspiration to us all, despite being an unrealistic and (mostly) unachievable time-traveling test-tube baby for anyone to set a goal at.

I think a lot of the old day pining stems from a desire to change some decision from the past. I do that a lot. The I realize who and where I am now is a result of those choices, including the bad ones. Only making the right choice leads to zero personal growth. Living a “perfect” life can easily lead to a miserable, fucked up future. Just take your pick of child actors or any spoiled trust funder.

I then end up reflecting on that past mistake instead and resolve to not make that mistake again. I figure that’s much better than living in the past.

Gotta jump in here with the nerdiness on this one. After Zordon died in Space(or maybe Lost Galaxy) canonically Zedd is more like Flanders from The Simpsons now than he is Al Bundy. And like Flanders I’m assuming his wife left him because she later showed up as a celestial Goddess/Queen of all Magic a.k.a. The Mystic Mother in Magic Force. Somehow I don’t see Zedd being a nice little stay at home husband in comparison to ‘that’ kind of job change. Who knows, maybe he is. I’m just curious where he would appear in the canon of the POWER/RANGERS fan movie since the Machine Empire seems to have won…

To be fair Zed could twist it into a twisted form of respect. I mean look at it, the unified show theory is that Al Bundy managed to get married (married w children), not once, but twice (modern family after a name change and witness protection service relocation.. assume something dark and twisted and Urkel related happened) to fairly hot wives.

I have my regrets, made mistakes, done the wrong things, but these have all helped to shape me into the person I am, and still help me to make the correct decisions. I don’t want to live in my past, or change it in any way. The past is over, hence, [i]past[i/].

As someone nearing the end of their junior year of college, I’ve been dreading my future after I graduating. I fear that I’ll lose contact with all the friends I’ve made, and I’ll be alone again.

I guess we fear the future because it is so unknown, nothing of it is set in stone. So some of us (or a lot I guess) just focus our worries on the bad possibility (Anxiety fucking sucks. I don’t even have a disorder for the heavy shit. I don’t wanna see the heavy shit).

But that last line. That helps me realize that we have influence on what happens. We can’t just rely on other people making things happen for us, to have them contact us. We need to be the ones to make the call if we want to keep it up. We need to show we care rather than worry about who cares. I might be going off a odd tangent or something, or not, I’ve been losing track on my words recently.

Coela, you’re great. I mean it. Just awesome. You’ve got a gift. Thank you so much for sharing it.

I used to be in the military. I’m the dad of a little boy and a little girl. From what I’ve gathered, you’re neither of things, but when you characterize the Commander’s experiences with either, I think, “Man, she nailed it. That’s just what it’s like. How’d she do that?”

And then occasionally you throw us something like this. I nod and say, “Yeah, that’s just about right.”

You’re an amazing storyteller, telling something true and beautiful in a handful of panels. Keep it up.

I appreciate it! I think I have two things working for me, one parents who encouraged being a lifelong learner and admitting when you don’t know the answer and just considering the situation from other perspectives (my dad always says five year olds are the best scientists because they don’t think they’re too cool to question things) and two just listening people who have had different life experiences than me talk about their lives. It helps figure out where those parallel strings that line up like shared experiences are. It feels like having a map and running around finding people to fill in the squares you can’t.

But do I miss the time like high school and middle school, etc. Fuck no. I was a miserable little shit back then with so many problems and no way out of them. I might feel the same when I’m old and feel the problems within me, but as long as I can read a book… I think I’ll survive.

I tend to pine a little bit for college. Not because there weren’t shitty parts, but because I had so much free time, even between school and part time work. It was much more free wheeling, get to hang out with your friends all the time, then my 8am-7pm software engineering job tends to be. Contrarily I was broke as fuck and my friends used to force buying things on me (don’t ask) so there were definitely some more negative aspects too. Still it was one of the most free and comfortable times I can think of, even with semester payment stresses (hence the TRUE big negative of being broke)